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Blessed Speakers

11:53:00 AM

Waning Moon, Wednesday, Mercury

Communication. It is the end and beginning of our relationships. Some communicate poorly, others with clarity. We fail to communicate our deepest desires and fears, we fail to communicate with our partners and friends, our families. Where the swift delivery of messages should come with ease, Mercury is not a star easily summoned.

Because of my love for the ideals of glittering Venus, I hold a spiritual affinity with Peitho, the persuasive element of desire- that which beguiles a man or woman to a change of heart or mind. When I speak of Peitho here, I speak of her as a classical ideal, as an abstract, not necessarily her divinity.

Peitho touches women and men like me; debaters, orators, lovers of rhetoric and speech. Admittedly, my great love is the Written Word, what I consider to be mankind's supreme achievement, but that simply goes hand and hand with the power of Persuasion. I love to argue, to debate, to unravel ideas and rebuild new perspectives. And I'm good at it too, ask all my exes! Arguing with me is something you'd better study for because I was touched by Peitho and blessed on the tongue by a kiss from Mercury. I am sharp, cunning, quick and eloquent, and it's because I spend my time in the halls of the spirits of articulation.

In these halls is a symposium, we drink and debate, we raise our glasses to Rhetorica that we may be blessed in conveying our ideas effectively and persuasively. We praise logic and reason as holy guides by invoking them with debates, speeches and orations. There are no walls here to create an echo chamber, and we sit in the open air and listen. Carefully. There are all kinds of people who step into the halls of Mercury, most people do it unconscious of the sacred space that they have entered. The great philosophers of all time have made an appearance here; all those who think and speak deeply, they are illuminated by the stellar light too, whether they know it or not. Silver-tongued and quick-witted, public speakers, debaters, negotiators and all those who speak to change minds are sacred students of gnosis, of understanding.

With the power of communication, you can seduce a lover to a shaking, needy thing, you can stoke the fires of warfare to full flame, you can break apart a solid system and sew gnosis where there was once vapid ignorance. Cicero would say that there's more to the art of oration than eloquence. It's not enough to breath words into being; that's simply talk. It's altogether different to give birth to words, to bring them to life through the process of delivery. This manifestation is magic, the ability to formulate your words into sentences that evoke emotion and persuade the minds of others is a type of spell-craft. A great speaker weaves words and delivers them in a ritual that ensnares and bewitches those who hear it. Honeyed words go down smoothly, but honest words stay longer.

Misunderstandings are the source of much of our suffering. We watch as our relationships decay into bitterness because we simply can't express, persuasively, our emotions and innermost thoughts. Peitho doesn't come easy, she must be summoned through wisdom, understanding, eloquence, objectivity, delivery and will. To persuade someone you love to change their mind, to understand you, you had better know how to deliver yourself to them honestly. Also, there is the acceptance that some people simply cannot hear no matter how loud, eloquent or honest your words may be.

I think that's where most of us mess up; we want to deliver our wishes but not open up a discussion, when it's that very discussion we need. We need the passion of debate to stimulate us, we need the fire of disagreement to empower us, we need transparency to see clearly and well chosen words to hear clearly. When we fail to communicate our desires, the message is lost and I know personally, the feeling of loss is a spiritual one when you can't communicate with someone you truly love. When neither party finds the means to communicate, they suffer, and the stellar light between them dims, dwindles and dies.

I'm not sure how everyone else communicates ideas, but I know that my method of trying to persuade a loved one is through fluency, honesty, direct blunt admission, and, unfortunately, a barbed tongue at the end of it all. Spitting venom isn't the sign of a great speaker. Taking venom and working through it eloquently- that's a great speaker. Anyone can spew feelings, it takes a special kind of person to observe, analyze and deconstruct feelings down to something understandable for anyone. I don't have that magic yet. I am deeply persuasive, but I have my limits. Or at least, I used to.

When I reclaimed my love of performing, I realized just how far away from the illumination of Mercury I had gotten; the years of depression had left me choking on my words, unable to adequately express myself. I knew how to debate and how to argue but every time I opened my mouth, awkward insecurity fell out. I was ignorant to the persuasive element, to reaching in and touching someone's soul with my words again. That's the part I love, you know? The part where I reveal all my lust and desire and need and want in a string of ideas and allegories. When people respond to my poetry, my essays, my debates, it empowers me to know that a connection was made. I was able to touch them, they were able to touch me and that connection set off a spark between us that will be remembered. I communicated. They understood. We understand.

To be able to connect to people physically, emotionally, spiritually, just through speech is something powerful, a mystical force I think. The ability to traverse the schisms between cultures, regions, genders, to bridge these broken steps that should connect ALL people, that's an incredible gift. It should be honed like a fine weapon, sharp though well worn. I want to be powerful in this magic. I want the silver tongue of Mercury, the allure of Peitho, the warmth of Venus. I want to be able to change your minds with a string of words and ideas. I want to make the people who love me understand me better. I want to speak to you. In words you can understand, in words that will illuminate your mind, in words that cannot be misheard.

Shout out to John E., a great public speaker and my life-coach, congrats on your new job, may your voice carry over every hill and mountain and wake the sleeping people.